A conventional technique for forwarding computer messages to any one of a number of final destinations is to use a pattern of bits to identify the destination of a particular message, and then walk the pattern bits through a Patricia tree structure of a direct table and, if necessary, through one or more Pattern Search Control Blocks (PSCB's). One such technique is shown and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,963,868 B2. In this patent, the PSCB's are multibit, thus reducing the latency time. However, this poses problems in updating the Patricia tree. The present invention describes a technique for updating the Patricia tree by inserting and deleting leaves without interrupting the functioning of the Patricia tree.